pepperandchips
[melinda]
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2014
May 31 - last full day at Aulani
How is it possible we've already come to the last full day at Aulani? Ah, even visits to paradise must end, I suppose. Fortunately, we had more adventures on the horizon before heading home or I would've been despondent leaving Aulani.
As we were planning on a pool day and Hawaii time made us early risers anyway, we headed down to the adult pool to stake out spots shortly before 9:00 am. Spoiler alert: totally unnecessary.
We had full run of the adult pool at that hour and there was barely anyone at the other pools either (although quite a number of "reserved" chairs already...)
As you can see, the adult pool gets a lot of morning shade. This is fine for me, I am usually longing for shade at the beach or pool, but my dear fiance is more of a sun fan so we decided to try some of the other pools while the crowds were slim. We had the Ka Maka Grotto pool nearly to ourselves, it was just us and a father/daughter playing in the water. (no photos, sorry)
These pools really are so beautiful, I love the immersive resort feel at Aulani and how immaculately the grounds are kept. They did fold our towels for the hour time limit this morning while we visited the other pools, but it was unnecessary. We were obviously back within the hour anyway but there were plenty of chairs for quite some time.
I really enjoyed that the adult pool (and maybe the others, though I am not sure because we never sat elsewhere) had pool chair service, so I availed myself of the oportunity to try Aulani's mai tai:
This was good, a standard mai tai but necessary to experience poolside, at least once! Two mai tais were $28.27, plus tip, so I was glad we had our stash of Safeway booze previously through the trip. I'm not sure what's more indulgent than a mai tai with a beautiful orchid brought to you in your pool chair in tropical paradise. Can't beat it!
After our mai tais, we headed up to the room and finished off our taco supplies for another lunch on the balcony. I really like this aspect of DVC accomodations, it makes vacations feel a bit more relaxed to me to have a bit of a kitchenette where I can prepare a leisurely lunch "at home" even if it's just assembling cold prepared foods. I'm sure we had another drink or two. I left my phone and camera in the room and we headed down to the pools again where we just dumped our stuff on the ground in the shade and took a couple of laps around the lazy river. The resort was MUCH less busy today than it had been over the weekend and we enjoyed the lazy river with fewer bodies bumping along. We ended the afternoon back at the beach, which is truly the highlight of Aulani for me. It is probably the biggest selling point for me to go back, with the sheltered lagoon affording a swimming opportunity where other beaches don't.
We also had a great time interacting with other guests at Aulani's beach. I can't remember which day it was but we spent a fair amount of time just chatting in the waves with a nice lady who was there with her extended family from the northeast U.S. Lots of people asked if we were on our honeymoon so we got to tell the engagement story plenty of times! We also had a great time chatting with one of the recreation cast members, Lance, who was really funny and entertaining. Aulani has great staff and we didn't have any unpleasant interactions.
We had a nice dinner planned so we got cleaned up and headed down to the beach again for more photopass. Sorry for the photopass overload but I found other trip reports helpful in seeing photopass locations so I am trying to showcase the different spots and different lighting you can get there for those who might be interested:
Not crazy about the back-lighting in this one above, but it shows the grass location if you don't want to get your feet sandy after cleaning up
Also on the grass, above, but facing the other way, and a much better background in my opinion at this hour
The above one came out dark, I had to lighten it up myself, but I liked the sandy feet and sunset look
Same location, this time with flash. The photographers were always trying to get us to do shakas (the hand sign) and sometimes we obliged and sometimes we told them we'd prefer not to. After seeing how the first night's pictures turned out I had no problem saying "no" to certain poses.
They tried to get us to do a variety of different cutesy poses over the few nights we did photopass, this one was one of the few successful ones.
We took the last evening in with a stroll around the Ko Olina lagoon coves
We walked over toward the chapel and past it around the corner to where the Ko Olina Villas are
Looking back at Aulani
And then back past Aulani over to the Four Seasons:
the Four Seasons was playing host to an extravagant wedding that night so that pathway was blocked off, preventing us from walking all the way around to Luau Cove. I was a little irritated, actually, but I wouldn't want pedestrians sauntering through my wedding either, I suppose.
We had dinner reservations for 'Ama 'Ama that evening at about 8:00. I had originally made the reservation for 5:30 for sunset, but we learned earlier in the week that would not work for our eating schedule so I moved it to a later time when we were there. We were seated shortly after our reservation time at a great table near the beachfront terraces. I did a pretty bad job photographing our meal, but I did take notes on what we had.
Quickly, I will note that our reservation was immediately past the last stages of sunset and when it got dark the flying termites that everyone complains about at 'Ama 'Ama did come out. They were buzzing around when we were waiting on our table and they were pretty thick and swarmy when we were seated. One got in my dress and really freaked me out for a minute. But they went away in about 5-10 minutes so I am really glad we did not kick up a fuss over it. I started with a glass of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc ($13) and R had the Elouan Pinot Noir ($12). Neither was grossly overpriced and these are widely available at home as well. They brought us extra coasters to put on top of our wine glasses for the few minutes that the termites were around they worked, I am glad to report!
For appetizers we had:
Fresh ahi poke at the recommendation of our server, who told us it had been swimming that morning. $18. Current menu description: "AHI POKE WITH CRISPY RICE kochujang aïoli, kabayaki, sea bean salad" This was incredibly fresh and tasty, and I am not your gung-ho seafood eater so those are high accolades, I promise! Highly recommended.
For dinner I had the "daily catch" which was snapper, grilled and topped with macadamia nut brown butter sauce. Their fish menu allows you to choose a fish and mix and match with preparations. This was absolutely to die for. I wish I had a picture, but we were celebrating and I was trying to lay off the documenting and just savor the moment. My entree was $36.
R had Shrimp Pasta ($32) "curry-spiced garlic shrimp, squid ink, egg linguine" and we also greatly enjoyed this. I remember it being tasty and flavorful. The server warned us about it in some way (now I can't remember what about, wow am I helpful) but we were very glad we went with it anyway.
We also ordered sides, as the menu is basically a la carte. We were tempted by "asparagus with herb-butter, fried garlic" ($11) and the truffle mac and cheese ($14). Both were disappointing and I would skip them in future in lieu of another appetizer and more fresh options.
As dinner wound down, we were treated to an unexpected surprise, though we had a bit of warning thanks to the live band which announced what was happening:
the Four Seasons wedding had arranged for fireworks! Cue the waterworks!
I know it had nothing to do with Disney but it just felt incredibly special, enjoying our last night at Aulani celebrating romance with fireworks, which are just quintessentially Disney to me. They weren't for us, but they felt like they were for us.
Sidenote: I cannot imagine what this wedding must have cost. The fireworks alone probably cost more than my whole wedding will. There were a LOT of fireworks. It was gorgeous!
We finished the meal with dessert:
Mocha Chantilly Cake ($11) Coffee Kanten, Coffee Anglaise, Macadamia Nut Nougatine and Chocolate Gelato. I believe this was recommended by our server but I don't remember anything else about it. I probably let R have most of it and opted for another glass of wine
the total with tax before tip was $167.53, so we made it an even $200 and went back to our room to sit on the balcony and listen to the live music from the Olelo room and pretend we never had to leave.
There's not much left to say of Aulani, the next day includes just a couple tidbits about departure, so I understand if I lose my audience after this. After all, half the fun of trip reporting is reliving the memories. However, we are only halfway into the trip and headed off the next morning for Kauai, followed by Disneyland, so stay tuned if either of those adventures interest you!
To those of you not interested in the rest of the trip, thanks for reading and ALOHA!
How is it possible we've already come to the last full day at Aulani? Ah, even visits to paradise must end, I suppose. Fortunately, we had more adventures on the horizon before heading home or I would've been despondent leaving Aulani.
As we were planning on a pool day and Hawaii time made us early risers anyway, we headed down to the adult pool to stake out spots shortly before 9:00 am. Spoiler alert: totally unnecessary.
We had full run of the adult pool at that hour and there was barely anyone at the other pools either (although quite a number of "reserved" chairs already...)
As you can see, the adult pool gets a lot of morning shade. This is fine for me, I am usually longing for shade at the beach or pool, but my dear fiance is more of a sun fan so we decided to try some of the other pools while the crowds were slim. We had the Ka Maka Grotto pool nearly to ourselves, it was just us and a father/daughter playing in the water. (no photos, sorry)
These pools really are so beautiful, I love the immersive resort feel at Aulani and how immaculately the grounds are kept. They did fold our towels for the hour time limit this morning while we visited the other pools, but it was unnecessary. We were obviously back within the hour anyway but there were plenty of chairs for quite some time.
I really enjoyed that the adult pool (and maybe the others, though I am not sure because we never sat elsewhere) had pool chair service, so I availed myself of the oportunity to try Aulani's mai tai:
This was good, a standard mai tai but necessary to experience poolside, at least once! Two mai tais were $28.27, plus tip, so I was glad we had our stash of Safeway booze previously through the trip. I'm not sure what's more indulgent than a mai tai with a beautiful orchid brought to you in your pool chair in tropical paradise. Can't beat it!
After our mai tais, we headed up to the room and finished off our taco supplies for another lunch on the balcony. I really like this aspect of DVC accomodations, it makes vacations feel a bit more relaxed to me to have a bit of a kitchenette where I can prepare a leisurely lunch "at home" even if it's just assembling cold prepared foods. I'm sure we had another drink or two. I left my phone and camera in the room and we headed down to the pools again where we just dumped our stuff on the ground in the shade and took a couple of laps around the lazy river. The resort was MUCH less busy today than it had been over the weekend and we enjoyed the lazy river with fewer bodies bumping along. We ended the afternoon back at the beach, which is truly the highlight of Aulani for me. It is probably the biggest selling point for me to go back, with the sheltered lagoon affording a swimming opportunity where other beaches don't.
We also had a great time interacting with other guests at Aulani's beach. I can't remember which day it was but we spent a fair amount of time just chatting in the waves with a nice lady who was there with her extended family from the northeast U.S. Lots of people asked if we were on our honeymoon so we got to tell the engagement story plenty of times! We also had a great time chatting with one of the recreation cast members, Lance, who was really funny and entertaining. Aulani has great staff and we didn't have any unpleasant interactions.
We had a nice dinner planned so we got cleaned up and headed down to the beach again for more photopass. Sorry for the photopass overload but I found other trip reports helpful in seeing photopass locations so I am trying to showcase the different spots and different lighting you can get there for those who might be interested:
Not crazy about the back-lighting in this one above, but it shows the grass location if you don't want to get your feet sandy after cleaning up
Also on the grass, above, but facing the other way, and a much better background in my opinion at this hour
The above one came out dark, I had to lighten it up myself, but I liked the sandy feet and sunset look
Same location, this time with flash. The photographers were always trying to get us to do shakas (the hand sign) and sometimes we obliged and sometimes we told them we'd prefer not to. After seeing how the first night's pictures turned out I had no problem saying "no" to certain poses.
They tried to get us to do a variety of different cutesy poses over the few nights we did photopass, this one was one of the few successful ones.
We took the last evening in with a stroll around the Ko Olina lagoon coves
We walked over toward the chapel and past it around the corner to where the Ko Olina Villas are
Looking back at Aulani
And then back past Aulani over to the Four Seasons:
the Four Seasons was playing host to an extravagant wedding that night so that pathway was blocked off, preventing us from walking all the way around to Luau Cove. I was a little irritated, actually, but I wouldn't want pedestrians sauntering through my wedding either, I suppose.
We had dinner reservations for 'Ama 'Ama that evening at about 8:00. I had originally made the reservation for 5:30 for sunset, but we learned earlier in the week that would not work for our eating schedule so I moved it to a later time when we were there. We were seated shortly after our reservation time at a great table near the beachfront terraces. I did a pretty bad job photographing our meal, but I did take notes on what we had.
Quickly, I will note that our reservation was immediately past the last stages of sunset and when it got dark the flying termites that everyone complains about at 'Ama 'Ama did come out. They were buzzing around when we were waiting on our table and they were pretty thick and swarmy when we were seated. One got in my dress and really freaked me out for a minute. But they went away in about 5-10 minutes so I am really glad we did not kick up a fuss over it. I started with a glass of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc ($13) and R had the Elouan Pinot Noir ($12). Neither was grossly overpriced and these are widely available at home as well. They brought us extra coasters to put on top of our wine glasses for the few minutes that the termites were around they worked, I am glad to report!
For appetizers we had:
Fresh ahi poke at the recommendation of our server, who told us it had been swimming that morning. $18. Current menu description: "AHI POKE WITH CRISPY RICE kochujang aïoli, kabayaki, sea bean salad" This was incredibly fresh and tasty, and I am not your gung-ho seafood eater so those are high accolades, I promise! Highly recommended.
For dinner I had the "daily catch" which was snapper, grilled and topped with macadamia nut brown butter sauce. Their fish menu allows you to choose a fish and mix and match with preparations. This was absolutely to die for. I wish I had a picture, but we were celebrating and I was trying to lay off the documenting and just savor the moment. My entree was $36.
R had Shrimp Pasta ($32) "curry-spiced garlic shrimp, squid ink, egg linguine" and we also greatly enjoyed this. I remember it being tasty and flavorful. The server warned us about it in some way (now I can't remember what about, wow am I helpful) but we were very glad we went with it anyway.
We also ordered sides, as the menu is basically a la carte. We were tempted by "asparagus with herb-butter, fried garlic" ($11) and the truffle mac and cheese ($14). Both were disappointing and I would skip them in future in lieu of another appetizer and more fresh options.
As dinner wound down, we were treated to an unexpected surprise, though we had a bit of warning thanks to the live band which announced what was happening:
the Four Seasons wedding had arranged for fireworks! Cue the waterworks!
I know it had nothing to do with Disney but it just felt incredibly special, enjoying our last night at Aulani celebrating romance with fireworks, which are just quintessentially Disney to me. They weren't for us, but they felt like they were for us.
Sidenote: I cannot imagine what this wedding must have cost. The fireworks alone probably cost more than my whole wedding will. There were a LOT of fireworks. It was gorgeous!
We finished the meal with dessert:
Mocha Chantilly Cake ($11) Coffee Kanten, Coffee Anglaise, Macadamia Nut Nougatine and Chocolate Gelato. I believe this was recommended by our server but I don't remember anything else about it. I probably let R have most of it and opted for another glass of wine
the total with tax before tip was $167.53, so we made it an even $200 and went back to our room to sit on the balcony and listen to the live music from the Olelo room and pretend we never had to leave.
There's not much left to say of Aulani, the next day includes just a couple tidbits about departure, so I understand if I lose my audience after this. After all, half the fun of trip reporting is reliving the memories. However, we are only halfway into the trip and headed off the next morning for Kauai, followed by Disneyland, so stay tuned if either of those adventures interest you!
To those of you not interested in the rest of the trip, thanks for reading and ALOHA!